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The rapid growth of China‚Äôs economy nowadays has made China
a global economic power. This has led to the increasingly new interest in China
from those outside the country. As a result, there is also a growing interest
in learning Chinese language. Centers of Chinese language learning has been
thriving around the world, and the number of Chinese proficiency test (HSK)
takers are also rising. The same goes for Indonesia. Along with this global
trend, the 1998 reform in Indonesia had brought back the chance for Chinese
language to be studied widely. Chinese language is taught again in language
courses, public schools and universities, and the number of students has been
increasing.

Nevertheless, the motivation and the learners or users of
Chinese language is not uniform. Many studies had shown that learning
motivation is influenced by social and cultural factors, benefits, and also
personal satisfaction. The background of the learners, their learning
environment, and the learning process itself, take part in forming the
motivation. As for the learners, apparently it is not only learnt by ethnic
Chinese, but it is also learnt and used by other ethnics, with varied backgrounds,
purposes and usage levels.

This situation has sparked the interest in exploring
Chinese language in the new atmosphere. Responding to the growing interest,
CCIS and the Chinese Department of Petra Christian University hold a conference
under the theme of Chinese Language
: The Learners and their purposes. The major objectives of this
conference are: providing an intellectual forum for the discussions of variable
linguistic realities of Chinese language, challenging the ways people teach and
study Chinese and reexamining the studies of Chinese linguistic trends and
practices in a globalized world. These objectives are inspired by the fact that
Chinese language learners and users come from diverse social, political, and
cultural background, such as: politicians, army, business people, besides
educators, translators, copywriters and tour guides. We expect that this
conference will bring together multidisciplinary researches and perspectives on
the social, cognitive, pedagogic aspects and linguistic impacts of the use and
the teaching of Chinese.

Students, teachers, scholars, researchers and media,
communication, cultural studies and linguistic experts are welcome to offer
both global and local perspectives on the varieties of Chinese linguistic
realities in a wide range of social and cultural context. In this way, this
conference functions as a space to bridge the gaps between research findings
and the praxis of the use and teaching of Chinese language. We believe that
this conference could provide a platform for participants to exchange ideas,
obtain valuable experiences, and broaden their academic knowledge and
networking.